Reality sinks in

Alright I know it has been incredibly long. Taiwan ended in November and Jay and I had this unbelievable trip planned to Thailand and Cambodia. Of course it was the same time that Bangkok airport decieded to have about a 4 day protest that shut down the airport, so we had to cancel our entire trip and re-route it to Bali, INdonesia. I guess not a bad second, but for us we were very disapointed that we had to start our planning from scratch. We decieded in one day to go to INdonesia and departed the next day. So planning was non-existant. And we just went with the flow. I will just hit on the highlights of our 2 week journey. We went to an amazing place named Gili Islands, which consited of 3 tiny islands about a mile long each. Very primitive and hippy. Jay recieved his scuba licence I got my advanced divers. It was unbelievable. We loved Gili Islands and recommend it, maybe not so much Bali though, a little too touristy for us. Anyways our trip was great. We then returned home enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. I lucked out and got a interim position at the high school I went to in Black Mountain, teaching history for 2 months it was great but it ended. Now I am the distance track coach at Reynolds High SChool in ASheville. It is wonderful. Jay hasn't been so lucky with the jobs because of the crappy economy. But we have taken the GRE and plan to go to Western Carolina University in the fall to begin our masters. Then once that is completed we will be heading overseas yet again. We can't get enough of it and miss it terribly already. WE reallly do miss Taiwan and hope to see our friends again there sometime.

Giyo- Giyo

This past week was high lighted with our marathon! All week we rested by swimming and laying in the hot tube at our pool. We ate a lot of pasta and fruit, and went to bed early. We didn't have to work on Friday or Saturday, so on Halloween day we took the train to Toroko Gorge which is on the other side of Taiwan. We met up at the hotel with our friends and training budies Dave and Jen. After a quick swim and eating a huge dinner buffet, we were off to bed early to wake up for the marathon. The marathon started at 7 am. The first part was a 3 K out of the gorge just to turn around and start the climb up through the gorge. The weather was perfect, light rain to start and cool climate the whole time. The gorge was extremely beautiful with waterfalls and mountain top temples. A few times I almost ran off the road because of the views. Allie and I ran together for about 15 miles till I had to take a bathroom break. From then on we were alone to run our own race. The turn around point was right out by our hotel, there was a small part of me that just wanted to run into the hotel, put my bathing suit on, grab a beer and sit in the pool and call it a day. But we both had a great time and I was feeling really strong, so I kept pushing on. I was waiting for me to hit the wall around mile 20 like my last marathon, but it never happened, don't get me wrong I was drainned and barley could keep running but with everyone yelling Giyo-Giyo and giving me the thumbs up and even one guy that I talked to before the race pyshically pushing from behind to keep running and not to walk , so I kept running. Giyo (not spelled even close) means in chinese to go, go, go even when you got to the gas station to tell the guy to fill up your tank you say Giyo, which means fill my go tank (not gas tank). It is a cool word that we just don't have in our English language. From the last 5 K point Allie and I felt that is was the worst, becuase they had a countdown for you to know excatly how much further you had to run. I swear I saw the 3 K mark twice (but that was the start of my delirium). Allie of course ran a great run, not her personal best time but running up a mountain to turn around and run down besides a flat course it was a great time 3:48 minutes. To let you know how hard the course was Allie finished 10th overall for the women (this race was big over 6,500 people ran it). She was beat by a profestional runner from Japan and a profestional Kenyan runner. She finish about 40 minutes behind the leader which is awesome! She won 5,000 NT which after taxes 4,000NT comes to about 125 US dollars. I finished 3:58 minutes (with a bathroom break I want to add) which was I think in the top 200 of the men, not as impressive as Allie but I broke my goal of 4 hours goal and beat my best time which I will not mention because it was pretty slow for me. When I finish I have to say I was really mad and quite delirious. All I wanted was water and maybe a sports drink, which you had to walk about 50 feet which at that point seemed very far. There you get a free lunch box (package lunch of rice, chicken, and some vegetables), bottle of water, and a box of sports drink. I wanted nothing to do with the lunch but they insisted to give me one, so I through it down on the ground and started stabbing my juice box with one chop stick thinking it was the straw. Finally I figured that out and used my straw which went too far and fell in the box, so I went cave man and squeezed it all over my face and in my mouth. I did get a few wierd looks after that but I felt a lot better. After Dave and Jen got back back we rested and went back to the hotel, where we bought a few beers and laid out by the pool. We had free entrance to the spa that night which we thoroughly enjoyed laying in the hot tubs and suana and then of course eating our faces off at the buffet again. We called it an early night since we could all barely move. The next morning we were up early to catch the 8 am train back to Taichung. I think this will probably be the most beautiful run we will ever run in our entire lives, it was breathtaking.

Hot Springs and Culture

This past weekend Jay and I went on a Hash House Harriers excursion to a place called Bailaoi, which is about 4 hours south of Taichung and in the beautiful rugged mountains. It happened to be the 10th anniversary of the Taichung Hash. So we had been looking forward to this for a while. I of course had trouble convincing my job to let me have the Saturday off, keep in mind I only teach one 2hour class in the morning and they couldn't seem to feasibly find a sub for those little two hours, so being the good employee that I am I came into work and found another hasher who had a car to drive me down later, while Jay went down on the bus early in the morning. We arrived at a very remote place with tons of hot springs. It was amazing. Unfortunately I arrived too late to make the first run on Sat. but Jay was able to enjoy a treacherous two hour mountain run. That evening we indulged ourselves in traditional Taiwanese food and beer as we all relaxed around in the hot springs. Jay and I stayed with most of our friends at another foreigners house/hostel by the river. It was beautiful to wake up to clean air and the sound of the water. The next morning we all got ready for another run which was an A to B run and ended at another hot spring. It was a very hard mountain run that included climbing directly up about three waterfalls and climbing multiple mountains. It was a fairly short one but had beautiful scenery. We enjoyed more natural springs afterwards and then headed for the long journey home. A lot of our fellow hashers found out this weekend that we are leaving fairly soon and it was very sad to see their reaction. They must actually enjoy us.... because they were very upset that we were leaving. But it is so great that we have made such good friends here. I think they are definitely the people we enjoy the most and will miss the most. We have had a lot of great times with them. I think they might even miss us more than our work but who knows. Unfortunately this entire weekend I did not take pictures and I anxiously await the pictures that other took and I will put them up as soon as I receive them.

This week Jay and I went to dentist for the first time and for the both of us it cost a total of $6, pretty amazing huh? I have never been so excited to go the dentist before. And lucky for us we both came out with clean teeth and no cavities. I think Jay and I are both pretty lucky we have never had one cavity between the two of us. I plan on keeping it that way. As for other news we just are waiting with anticipation for our marathon in one week... very nerve racking. For those of you who don't know about it. The length of a marathon is 26.2 miles of 42 kilometers. And this particular race is in the Toroko National Gorge which is the main tourist attraction in Taiwan and Jay and I haven't experienced it yet. And I still am not sure if we have picked the most pleasant way to do so, but I definitely think we will see all of it, in its entirety.

The Beauty of Taiwan

Last weekend we had a great weekend of somethings different. Of course we still had to go to our hash run, but something new about it was a run through the city and also a pool BBQ at the end. We ran in places that Allie and I have never been. Most of it was through the old section of the city where there was less traffic and cool side streets. It was really hot that day so it was nice to be able to jump into a cold pool even with a swim cap. After swimming around and cooling off for a while we had a pot luck cook out. Everyone brought something different from guacamole to fried noodles. The meat was brought by a hasher that works at a restaurant so we had baby back ribs, German sausage, and real marinated steaks. Needless to say I ate way to much and Allie was hurting a little too. We already had plans to meet some of our co-teachers (Chinese teachers) at a local bar where we had a really good time. It was really nice to hang out with them since we are going home soon. It is going to be sad when we leave because we have made a lot of really good friend and are really enjoying the life that we have made here.

The next week was short, we had Friday and Saturday off for Double Tenth Day which is the equivalent to Taiwan's independence day even though a lot of the world don't recognize it as a seperate country from China. We left at 12 midnight on Thursday night with 4 other friends, one South African (Lauren), one Australian (Brian). and two from Boston area (Jon and Nick). We were off to Orchid Island also known as Lanyu. It is south east of Taiwan. We left late at night and had an intense journey down to Kenting to take the ferry, which left at 8 the next morning. The journey consisted of waiting at Mos Burger for 3 hours in the middle of the night for our ride, then taking a very cramped van to the port, and then taking a 2 hour boat ride (which was one of the roughest rides ever, with people throwing up all around us). Finally we were there and the beauty alone was worth the hassel. It was amazing, very green and volcanic, it reminded me a lot of what the Hawaiian islands look like. The island also had a lot of goats, they were everywhere and very cute. Since we had the entire day on Friday we all rented scooters and then went to our campsite. Which was in the middle of a schools track. And it was perfect. Close to the water and nice comfortable grass to set our tent in. We went swimming to the beach for a while and then took a scooter trip around the island which is about 50km long so we did about half. We drove a very steep road to the weather center on top of the highest mountain and enjoyed a beautiful view. That night we met some other people camping and decieded to raid the only local supermarket for all the pork and some fish that they had so that we could have a campfire on the beach. It was awesome..people from all over the island ended up coming for a good feast and relaxing. Unfortunately we were all very exhausted from basically not sleeping well for the past 36 hours and we headed to bed at about 9 pm. Jay and I woke up early the next morning for a run. Then we all rented snorkeling equipment and enjoyed the coral. THe current is really strong around the island and we couldn't venture out too far otherwise we would have a difficult time swimming back to shore. Brian decieded to go out a little far and we couldn't see him... eventually we spotted him far out and looking as though he was having a difficult time getting back. Jay went out to help since he is a good swimmer and on the way he spotted a manoray....which is somewhat like a stingray. I was so jealous... ButI guess that was his reward for going to help out Brian. We enjoyed another scooter trip to the other side of the island and watched the sunset. We ate dinner at a very cute restuarant called the Epicurean and it was amazing with very good food. We had another early night and the next morning we had one more quick snorkle and went back on the ferry home. When we arrived in Kenting after the ferry, we had arranged a driver to pick us up..it turned out to be the taxi ride from hell. He seemed to pop a beatle nut in every 20 minutes and he never spit. He was driving like a mad man mainly whizing by cars in the scooter lane most of the time. People were rolling down their windows screaming at him. I felt as if I was in a Formula One race... and I didn't feel like we were winning. Anyways it was an amazing time and really recommend it. Taiwan is really beautiful in some places. This gave us the boost we need to make our final stretch to the end.

Suit up in our rain gear...time for a run

This past weekend Taiwan had their fourth typhoon of the year to hit (Super Typhoon Jangmi)This typhoon was being called the strongest one of the year. Allie and I did get to enjoy some free time with some nice weather on Saturday it was a beautiful day, see when typhoons come the day before it is a lot cooler and really clear. So we walked around the city enjoying a nice dinner at an outside restaurant, and a nice glass of wine. Sunday morning we woke up really early to meet some friends for a run. Since we need to get some long runs in we had to beat the typhoon, so 5 am we were up and riding the scooter. The wind was whipping around and we were decked out in our rain gear scooting to the run start. We ran a 30 k or for our American measurements little over 18 miles. It was raining just enough to keep us cool, it was on a nice bike trail and was really enjoyable(besides running for three hours). We rain out 15 k and back. Later that afternoon the typhoon really hit, and hit harder than the other ones. The wind was really strong, it blew a lot of trees down and made a mess of the city. We even had part of our roof ripped off. There is a inner skylight blocked off by windows so luckily the rain isn't really coming into our apartment. The good thing about the typhoon being so strong is that it was gone by the next morning. We still didn't have classes on Monday because of the typhoon so we took the scooter out in the rain and took some pictures of the city. We didn't adventure too far. Some of the things we saw, were signs flying down the road, lines of scooters knocked over because of the wind, trees and powerlines down, flooding in the streets. One lady was waiting at a stop light on her scooter with a child on her back and then a gust of wond came and knocked her off her scooter. Very crazy. The rain has stuck around and it has been one of those rainy days where we just sit inside. Except for us we really get cabin fever, so we have cleaned our apartment and went through all of our receipts to see if we have won anything. There is a lottery in Taiwan, that uses receipt numbers for winning numbers. So we saved our receipts and looked through about a hundred or so to check their numbers, we have never won anything but this time we won about 400 Taiwan dollars..... or 12 US dollars. Not that exciting when you think of it that way, but that is a good dinner for two here. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the typhoon.

Trip to Taipei

This past weekend we finally got out of Taichung, it has felt like it has been awhile. We went up to Taipei to visit our friend Daniel, and to do something new. We got up there Saturday just in time for dinner, which we went to a hole in the wall restuarant that made really good Mexican food. This was an amazing thing to find all the way in Taiwan. Taiwan's version of Mexican food that we have came across before consistes of Doritos with cheese melted on top with a microwave. So the night started off with some great food and ended with a relaxing drinks at a sofa bar called "Sofa". Sunday brought some more exciting events. We headed north to the coastal town right outside of Taipei., Danshui. This is a retreat of most city dwelers looking for a carnival atmosphere. We were just looking for some icecream because of the heat was just melting us. Allie and Daniel found some green tea and strawberry icecream that was almost the same hight as Taipei 101. After a long day of walking and eating Allie and I left Daniel for our long trip back to Taichung. We almost made it a block until we were stopped by a strange parade. It was led by a man lighting paper in the middle of the street and swerling a large stick around almost knocking people off their scooters.

We are trying to run everyday and get ready for our marathon in November. We have alittle more than a month left. Running in Taichung is harder than we thought since it gets about 90 by 9:00 am, and the traffic is bussier than normal earlier than that. Plus Taichung's air quality is the worst in Taiwan, but if we can train and run in this than Hualien should be no problem.

Category 4 Typhoon

Well this past weekend was supposed to be our half marathon, unfortunately Taiwan was hit by a major typhhon later Friday night which resulted in school being cancelled on Saturday and our race cancelled on Sunday.... which we were really bummed about. BUT we still made the most of our weekend. We didn't let torrential rains and hurricane force winds stop us from going to the hash run on Saturday afternoon. As Jay and I are both standing at a fellow hashers house on top of a mountain overlooking Taichung I was thinking to myself this is a little insane, as the trees were whipping around, branches flying off and the rain stinging our bodies. Yet we set off for our run and it was awesome. We really enjoyed ourselved and it really beat sitting inside and just observing the typhoon. We were submerged in it. The run was about a 10k and it consisted of getting lost, running through a pith black tunnel for 10 minutes with rushing water. Luckily they had set up a few teeky torches (sp) . It was a wonderful view at the top where you could see nothing because of so much rain and the huge typhoon that lingered over the city for about 2 and half days. Jay came is first for the men and I came in first for the women, which is always nice. We found out later that the typhoon was so strong that it actually had two eyes. I didn't know that could happen. Anyways after the run we had a wonderful BBQ with fajitas (which is unheard of in Taiwan...they don't understand Mexican food) refried beans, salsa (what a novelty item). It was great. We sat around with good people and as usual Jay and I were the target of lots of jokes and fun dobs. Well Sunday we took it easy because the rains almost seemed worse than the day before. WE attempted to go for a run... BUt as soon as we got outside we realized that wasn't happening. Sunday was also Moon Festival in Taiwan...where families will have BBQ and watch the moon... because it is a full moon. But there was a typhoon so seeing the moon was not going to happen. But somehow people still stood outside with their umbrellas having BBQs. This week we purchased some new running stuff so hopefully that will keep us motivated to run more so we literally don't die during our marathon. Things are good and we are really enjoying ourselves. Hope you keep reading. (So you see the little island north west of the typhoon..that is Taiwan... kind of overpowers us huh?)